The invention is based on a priority application EP 06291400.7 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a method of providing an Internet protocol television (=IPTV) service to a subscriber, and a network element to execute said method.
Currently, the form of IPTV is designed for a single operator to deliver broadcast TV (=television) within its own network. IPTV solutions can be divided in tiers such as the acquisition tier, the client-facing tier and the client tier.
The acquisition tier is composed of Video Head End Servers (=VHE Servers), which are responsible for capture and encoding audio, video and sideband data. They also package the data in RTP format and transmit over multicast (RTP=Real-Time Transport Protocol). The client-facing tier is where FCC servers are located. The FCC servers are responsible for receiving the multicast data from the VHE-Server for fan-out to clients maintaining buffers per service. These servers are used for fast channel change. The third tier is the client, with the setup box that is responsible for sending signaling commands from the user and to decode the data. In the current solution the three tiers are coupled and provided by a single network operator.